English clubs make history with finals in all three European competitions

English teams have reached the finals of three different European competitions in the same season for the first time.

After Arsenal sealed their place in the final of the Champions League with a 2-1 aggregate victory against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace followed suit in their respective competitions later in the week.

Unai Emery’s Villa side overturned a 1-0 first leg defeat to thrash Forest 4-1 on aggregate on Thursday and set up a Europa League final meeting with Bundesliga side Freiburg in Istanbul on 20 May, reports the BBC.

And simultaneous to Villa’s triumph, Crystal Palace followed up a 3-1 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk seven days ago with a 2-1 win against the Ukrainian side at Selhurst Park in the second leg. They will face Rayo Vallecano in the final of the Conference League on 27 May.

The Conference League was introduced five years ago, becoming European football’s third competition after the Cup Winners’ Cup ended in 1999.

Reaching all three finals almost happened last season, when Chelsea won the Conference League and Tottenham beat Manchester United in the Europa League final. But the last English team left in the Champions League was Arsenal, who were beaten by eventual winners Paris St-Germain in the final four.

The Premier League has had at least three teams across the finals of the Champions League and Europa League before.

In 2021, Kai Havertz scored the only goal as Chelsea defeated Manchester City in an all-Premier League Champions League final, while Manchester United lost in the Europa League final.

And in 2019, Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final in the same week Chelsea defeated Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku.

Meanwhile, in 2006 English teams lost both finals, when Arsenal were beaten in the Champions League by Barcelona and Middlesbrough were thrashed 4-0 by Sevilla in the Uefa Cup.

But you have to go back more than 20 years from that point to find the previous season in which English clubs won two of the three available competitions. In 1984, Liverpool claimed a fourth European Cup by defeating Roma, and Spurs defeated Anderlecht to win the Uefa Cup for a second time.

Liverpool also won the European Cup in 1981 with a 1-0 win over Real Madrid in Paris, while Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town defeated AZ Alkmaar in the same year’s Uefa Cup final.

Italy has secured a representative in all available finals several times, most recently in 2023, although their clubs lost all three finals.

Serie A won two out of three finals in 1993-94, and in 1989-90, a peak era for Italian football, Serie A clubs won all three competitions as Milan were crowned European champions, Juventus beat Fiorentina to win the Uefa Cup and Sampdoria won the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Spanish clubs reached three finals in 1985-86, with Real Madrid winning the Uefa Cup as Barcelona were beaten European Cup finalists and Atletico finished runners-up in the Cup Winners’ Cup.

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